My brother ran away
by jasper4ever
Summary: At the end of Bella's first day at Forks high, Edward runs away to Denali. What is this like for Emmett? How does Esme take the news? What do they do now?


Summary: On Bella's first day at Forks high, Edward runs off after school. What is this like from Emmett's point of view? How does Esme take the news? And what do the rest of Edward's family think of Bella causing Edward to leave? All characters belong to the great Stephenie Meyer. I did borrow the conversation in the car from Midnight Sun, but the thoughts and words in the rest of the piece are mine.

'Why my brother ran away'

I walked over to the car with the others, briefly wondering where Edward was before turning back to my previous chain of thought. What other ways could I get Jasper to play? Perhaps if I bet him he couldn't beat me twice in a row? But if I lost, it would cost me, and not just in the money sense. I could say something about Alice, but that wasn't really playing fair. I'd have to phrase the question so it seemed like he was getting something out of it. I was so gonna thrash him this time.

Edward opened the door then.

As soon as he got in, I could tell something was up. Big time. He was gulping down air as though he'd nearly drowned. "Edward?" asked Alice, but he shook his head. "What the hell happened to you?" I burst out.

He didn't answer, throwing the car into reverse instead. As he did so, he glanced in the mirror, and I caught sight of how dark his eyes were. I turned to stare at Alice as we accelerated out of the car park and along the road. Had she seen anything? I watched as she started to look ahead.

"You're leaving?" she asked, and I turned my stare to Edward. He clenched his jaw. "Am I?" he growled.

I wondered what could have affected him so badly he would leave us. Alice was still looking. And from the expression on his face, Edward was watching through her mind.

"Oh," said Alice. "Oh."

"Stop!" groaned Edward.

"Sorry," she whispered. Then: "I'll miss you. No matter how short a time you're gone."

I looked at Rosalie, the apprehension I felt mirrored in her eyes. Alice told him to stop the car as we got to the top of the drive. We got out and waited for her to join us. I looked at Rosalie to check she was okay, and then caught the end of what Alice was telling Edward. "She's Charlie Swan's only family. It would kill him too."

I stared at him, and then stepped into the woods with the others. Isabella Swan had done this to him? How? When? I took Rosalie's hand as she came over and looked at Alice.

C'mon, Alice, I thought. What did you see? Why the hell did he just take off like that?

"What happened, Alice?" I asked. She was shaken, and let Jasper hold her as she answered.

"You know I can only see the future, so I don't know what went on earlier. The first thing I saw was him leaving, driving somewhere on his own. Then I saw him..." her voice shook and Jasper drew her closer. " I saw him drinking from Bella Swan," she whispered. "Saw him at her house, hunting her." She swallowed again. "It was horrible. He was going to kill her, and we couldn't do anything." She paused to gather herself together.

"But then I saw him driving along a road in the snow. That's where he's going now, to Alaska, but he's gone to tell Carlisle first." I nodded and started walking towards the house, changing into a run as the others joined me.

"Why would an ordinary human make him leave? How could she have messed him up that much?" Rose asked. I shook my head. That was bothering me, too. He didn't need to hunt, and we all dealt with the blood lust every day.

"It doesn't make sense," I agreed. "Edward has the best control of all of us, apart from Carlisle."

"He was fine at lunch," added Alice.

"I'd guess she wasn't close enough at lunch," said Jasper. "With everyone else about, I couldn't smell anyone that far away, could you?" He was right. "I think they had a class together this afternoon," he finished.

"It would have been Bio, 'cos I meet him after Spanish sixth, and he wasn't there," I put in, and the others nodded.

We only had a few more seconds till the edge of the trees that surrounded the house now. I suddenly realised we would have to explain to Esme what had happened. Gees, I'd only just thought of it, and already it was a conversation I was dreading.

"Rosalie," I called, and she turned her face towards me, regardless of the trees flashing past. "Esme." Her eyes widened as she understood, and we both stopped short at the edge of the woods.

Jasper and Alice paused as we stopped. "What shall we tell Esme?" Rosalie asked them. Jasper cursed.

"She'll have heard us arrive," he whispered. "Might not," said Alice, "she's expecting us to come in the Volvo."

"She'll know something's wrong as soon as we go in," I pointed out.

"O.K, I'll start calming her as soon as we go in. We'll tell her we don't think he's gone for long..." Jasper didn't get any further, because Esme opened the door.

We stepped forward to greet her, and Jasper sent out a wave of calm. She looked from him to the rest of us. "I don't like to jump to conclusions," she started slowly, "but what have you done? And where's Edward?"

Rosalie turned to her with her sweet, disarming smile. "Why don't we go inside, Esme?" I grinned to myself as we went through the door. How well I knew that smile. Mine vanished, though, as we sat down and Esme turned to face us.

"What happened?" she asked quietly. I glanced at the others. No one seemed to want to start, so I cleared my throat quietly.

"When we got in the car today, Edward wasn't there. When he did arrive, it was obvious something had got to him. Then Alice saw something." I looked at her.

"Something happened to him this afternoon, Esme," she said gently. "Someone." Esme's expression of concern turned to horror. "It's o.k," Alice added hurriedly, and Esme relaxed slightly. "He didn't bite her. But he's gone to Denali for a few days, to sort himself out."

I felt horrible watching Esme as she soaked up this revelation. She loved all her 'children,' but had a soft spot for Edward. She hated to think of any of us in trouble, and I hated to have to give her this news.

"Oh Edward," whispered Esme. "Who was it?" she asked.

"The new girl. Isabella Swan."

"Tell me what you saw, Alice," she said, more firmly now. Alice recounted seeing him leave, and the hunting of the Swan girl, and then him driving again. Esme looked so sad.

"My poor Edward," she sighed. Rose moved from my side to comfort her, and Alice did the same. "It'll be o.k, Esme," soothed Rosalie. "He'll probably come back to us tomorrow, certainly by the end of the week."

"I just hope he's all right," snuffled Esme, sinking into Rosalie's shoulder.

I stood up and slipped upstairs, leaving the girls to calm her, and was soon joined by Jasper. "Do you think he will be back soon?" I asked. Jasper shrugged. "His feelings were all mixed up. He was scared and angry. And thirsty. Very thirsty. But I think once he's sorted his head out, he'll be fine."

I wandered along the hall to my bedroom door. Nothing we could do now. "I guess we should just get on with it then," I said, and he nodded. "Give us a shout when Carlisle comes in, will you?" I added. "Sure," Jasper replied, and disappeared into his room.

Carry on like normal, then, I thought, as I flopped onto the bed and flicked the T.V on. I thought gratefully of when Rosalie had insisted we have one in the room, as it now meant I could watch stuff while the others stayed in the living room. There wasn't much we could do about Edward; at least until Carlisle got back, and in the meantime, there was some wrestling on that I wanted to watch. That reminded me, I still had to get Jasper to give me a rematch...

Rosalie came in about half an hour later, and informed me that Esme was all right now, and just hopped Edward would be able to sort himself out without our help. Rosalie thought he'd do fine. I loved the way she picked herself up when things like this happened, and got on with life. I knew she was concerned about Edward, but she accepted that he would be back by the end of the week, and carried on with normality. She really was wonderful.

As I was thinking this, Rosalie stiffened and then moved to the window. "That's the Volvo," she said, as a car pulled up outside. We raced down the stairs, just in time to see Carlisle come in the door. He saw us looking, and grimaced. "Come and sit down, I'll explain." Why did he have Edward's car? I wondered, as the others came down as well.

So for the second time that afternoon, there was a family conference in the living room, this time with only Edward missing.

"So why don't you have the Merc?" asked Alice. Carlisle kept his calm, efficient hospital voice while he told us what had happened. "Edward came into the hospital and asked to talk to me. He was a bit anxious about something, so I asked him to go through it from the begging. I trust you all know it involved Bella Swan?" he asked. We nodded, so he continued. "She had to sit beside him in biology, and he couldn't cope. He doesn't know why, but her effect on him was bad enough that he was close to attacking the rest of the class."

I saw Rosalie flinch at the mention of our habit.

"He didn't elaborate, just said he was leaving for a while, so I offered him my car; it had a full tank of gas."

"So that's it?" asked Rosalie, shocked. "He just went?"

Carlisle nodded. "I'm afraid so, love," he said. "I think it's best to just get on with things and let him come back in his own time."

I nodded. No brilliant plan then. Carlisle thought all was well, so we would go with that. He was probably right; it wouldn't make much difference if I went after him, as I had been considering doing. I didn't want to let him run on his own in the state he'd been in this afternoon, but this was something Edward would have to do alone. But I still wondered how a normal girl could make my brother run from us.

I still wondered it as I looked out at the rain pounding the dark window later that night. We would carry on, and wait for him to return. Like Alice had said, we'd miss him, no matter how short a time he was gone. I knew he'd be back by the end of the week, and we'd think nothing more of it, apart from to joke about Edward running away.

Rosalie came over and pulled me towards the bed. I pushed other thoughts away, but one still lingered in my head as I sat with her.

How the hell could Bella Swan, a small, insignificant child have affected Edward so strongly?


End file.
